Camp Half Blood: One "Salty" Adventure

Chapter 26

Will's POV:

After my talk with Damian, I was exhausted. I kinda wanted to go to my place... but I also knew that Rose was fast asleep, and crawling into bed with her would be nice too. I decided to go to bed tonight, hopefully I wouldn't wake Rose up in the process. When I slowly opened the door, I found Rose sitting up straight, then I heard her breathing rapidly. "Rose? Hey hey, what's going on? Are you alright?" I started asking. She just shook her head and I sat next to her quickly, wrapping her in my arms. She put her head in my chest and I could feel her shaking. After a few minutes of me whispering encouraging words and trying to calm her down, I could feel her begin to relax. Once I felt it was safe, I let her go a little and wiped her eyes with my thumbs, resting my hands on her shoulders. "Rose? Are you ok?" I asked softly.

"Y-yeah." Her voice cracked. "I-I just... it felt so enclosed in here. I-I got a l-little claustrophobic." She explained. I nodded and looked down. This was risky... and if I got caught, I'd be dead. But... it was pretty late, and I don't think anyone would be awake at this time. Except, of course for whoever was on night watch, but everyone knew they always fell asleep during that, no matter who it was...

"Hey Rose? Did you uh... did you maybe wanna get out a little bit?" I asked, cautiously.

"What do you mean?" She asked. I bit my lip and stayed silent, but continued on anyways.

"W-Would you maybe want to go outside with me for a bit?" I asked, taking a deep breath and trying to slow down my heartbeat so I couldn't hear it pounding in my ears. It wasn't working. Rose thought about my offer for a minute or two before agreeing to come with me. I helped her get up and then lead her out the door. I shut, and locked, the door behind me so that no one would come in while we were gone. I knew it was late, but I couldn't be too cautious. I asked her if she wanted me to carry her, but she said that she'd be fine walking if it wasn't too far. I had her lean on me anyways, leading her through the hallways again. I had a flashlight I grabbed before we left, but the hallway itself was pitch black. Rose held onto my arm as we stumbled our way to a small door. I felt the warm air hit my face as we walked outside into the moonlight. Rose didn't let go of my arm right away. I was almost scared to move in case she let go, but for the moment, she had her eyes closed and was breathing deeply, enjoying the fresh air. I watched a small smile appear on her face and felt one start to form on mine. A warm tingly feeling started to form in my chest. Gods her hair looks good in the moonlight...

"Umm... Will? Are you okay?" Rose asked, snapping me out of my trance. I automatically shied away from her, chewing on my lip anxiously.

"Y-Yeah, fine. Follow me." Rose lessened her grip on my arm. I felt my heart sink a bit, but kept going, even though it was around 70 degrees out, I still felt cold without her clutching onto me. We stayed silent until we got to my stream. She smiled and bent down to the water. She must've tried to use her powers, because she suddenly tensed up and whimpered. "Sorry! Sorry! I'll take it off." I mumbled. Rose sat down and straightened out her leg so I could reach the anklet. "Umm... Olthen will know if it's off for more than five minutes so..." I trailed off.

"I understand. Just leave it on if you have to and take me back inside..." Rose shot me a dejected look.

"No! It's fine, I'll just..." I took the anklet off her leg and clamped it shut around my wrist, smiling at her. Rose gave me a surprised look.

"Maybe releasing a prisoner and then trapping yourself isn't a great idea." She laughed and smiled, but it never quite reached her eyes.

"Hey, come on, Rose. You're not just some prisoner. Not to me..." I mumbled starting to feel shy. Olthen told me not to say stuff like this. Not to anyone, and never to a prisoner. Because as he put it, "If people don't feel special then they're easier to control." But I didn't want him to have Rose.